A new Minecraft snapshot is out this week, the second consecutive preview of Minecraft Update 1.9 to go live on a Thursday, and it looks like we really are getting close to the point when Mojang will feel confident releasing Minecraft Update 1.9 to the general public.

If the patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 15w46a are any indication, and we’re not sure how they couldn’t be, the next big update for Minecraft is likely just around the corner. After devoting the bulk of last week’s Minecraft Update 1.9 development to stamping out bugs, discovered during the snapshot process, Mojang have returned with another weekly Minecraft snapshot focused (primarily) on the various bugs still being encountered by the community.

That’s not to say there aren’t any other changes in Minecraft snapshot 15w46a. For starters, the latest Minecraft developmental preview introduces fallen trees. But the reason we’re so honed in on the bug fixes from this week’s Minecraft snapshot is because, typically, when the folks at Mojang puts on their exterminator caps, it signals the final countdown to a major update for the smash-hit sandbox game.

Sadly, we still don’t have a timeline for the debut of Minecraft Update 1.9. But that shouldn’t exactly come as a shock, either. As many Minecraft players have undoubtedly learned, Mojang isn’t a studio that likes to put itself on a deadline. Rather than promising content on a certain date, regardless of its current condition, Mojang seems to prefer waiting until it’s absolutely confident it can deliver new Minecraft builds before making public plans to release them. So we probably won’t get more than a week or two’s notice, as we have with the last several Minecraft updates.